Twins Minor League Relief Pitcher of the Month - May 2024

Let’s clear something up right away: I don’t like using ERA to rank relievers. It stinks. We’re dealing with astronomically small sample sizes, and a significant portion of a reliever’s job—stranding runners—isn’t included in that classic acronym. I think more accurate ways to measure a bullpen arm’s mettle are with strikeouts—dominance—and WHIP. That being said, if an ERA is low enough, I'll respect the performance and give the hurler credit. Understand this, and my list makes a lot more sense. Anyways, here are the honorable mentions:

Xander Hamilton, A Fort Myers - 2.93 ERA, 15 1/3 IP, 1.11 WHIP, 30.2 K%
Hamilton made a serious bid for the list, but others threw more innings or allowed fewer baserunners. 19 Ks buoyed the righty from Appalachian State University's profile. 

Taylor Floyd, AA Wichita - 1.74 ERA, 10 1/3 IP, 0.77 WHIP, 30.8 K%
Floyd put up a sparkling ERA but lacked the frames to claim a better ranking. 

Nolan Santos, A Fort Myers - 2.56 ERA, 17 IP, 1.35 WHIP, 25.7 K%
His WHIP disqualified him from reaching higher, but Santos did total a healthy amount of innings while going 3-for-3 in save opportunities. He’s yet another 2023 selection to be mentioned on our pitching rankings.

Hobie Harris, AAA St. Paul - 2.25 ERA, 12 IP, 0.67 WHIP, 37.2 K%
Harris had probably the best month a reliever can have while allowing three homers. He struck out a platoon’s worth of batters, but I needed to see a few more innings to place him on the list.

Jacob Wosinski, A+ Cedar Rapids - 1.04 ERA, 17 ⅓ IP, 0.92 WHIP, 23.2 K%
Wosinski earned an honorable mention due to a below-average strikeout rate compared to some of the other arms on this list. 

John Stankiewicz, AA Wichita - 0.90 ERA, 10 IP, 0.60 WHIP, 23.5 K%
Stankiewicz allowed just one run the entire month, but he only totaled 10 innings. 

5. Aaron Rozek, AA Wichita - 1.75 ERA, 25 2/3 IP, 1.01 WHIP, 16.5 K%
Despite making one start, Rozek tossed as many innings as Darren Bowen and allowed just five earned runs the entire month—three of which came in that lone start. He was otherwise brilliant; the Burnsville native held batters to a .216 batting average and never pitched fewer than four innings in any of his appearances. 

(He’s also very active on Twitter if anyone cares to ask him questions about pitching or coffee)

2024 is the 28-year-old's fourth season in the Twins system. His early strikeout promise quietly tapered off as he moved through the levels, but the lefty has had extended, awesome play at times—and May is an example of what Rozek can do when everything goes right.

4. Samuel Perez, A Fort Myers - 2.95 ERA, 18 1/3 IP, 1.31 WHIP, 34.6 K%
I desperately wanted to rank Perez higher. Lefties who punch out over a third of the batters they face don’t grow on trees. Lefties who do that while accruing more than three outs in each one of their appearances may as well be considered an endangered species. Perez is one of those rare players still left in the wild. 

Eight walks is eight walks, though, and I couldn’t overlook that when making the list.

Originally a member of the Angels system, Perez signed with the Twins four separate times since 2021, essentially just renewing his lease every time the season ended. It’s a wonder why he hasn’t found a more stable situation; the Venezuelan owns a career 2.39 ERA across 244 1/3 minor league innings and has struck out more than a batter an inning. He’s now being stretched out as a starter; he may soon join the pitchers mentioned on our list a few days ago.

3. Jordan Carr, A+ Cedar Rapids - 1.71 ERA, 21 IP, 1.19 WHIP, 20.9 K%
Carr is basically a Kernels staple at this point. After cruising with a 1.48 ERA with them last season, he returned and bounced back from a poor April to return to his usual, assumed, somewhat boringly great self. 

The Baltimore native crushed the AFL after his season ended last year—notable in the fact that no pitcher does that—and looks primed for a return to Wichita. His experience there last year was… not good. It’s best not to mention his numbers. Maybe an older, more seasoned Carr is ready to perform at AA.

2. Gabriel Yanez, A+ Cedar Rapids - 0.59 ERA, 15 1/3 IP, 0.91 WHIP, 21.3 K%
Gabriel Yanez allowed one run in the month of May. He’s allowed three runs the entire year. It’s June.

What strikes me the most about Yanez is his unique ability to pound the zone with his breaking ball. Throwing a slider for strikes is a cheat code in the low levels of the minors; you can watch in real-time as a 21-year-old realizes the offering he thought slipped out of Yanez’s hand is actually spinning in for a strike. It’s enough to make a hitter reconsider his career choice. 

Yanez rode that breaker to a tremendous month; he surrendered just nine hits while often working in a multi-inning role. Perhaps the zenith of his May came on its final day when he channeled his inner Goose Gossage to cleanly deliver the game to its final four outs, quietly retiring eight men over just 33 pitches. That's the kind of effort that earns a 2nd overall ranking on this list. 

1. Ricardo Velez, A+ Cedar Rapids - 0.69 ERA, 13 IP, 0.91 WHIP, 35.8 K%
Yanez and Velez—a lockdown two-some you don’t see too often, regardless of level. Velez was basically Yanez but with more whiffs; the righty struck out 19 in May, one more than Carr despite throwing eight fewer innings. 

The University of Science and Arts of Oklahoma has been a strikeout machine since joining the Twins system, with 104 punchouts over just 78 2/3 innings. He’s added a new wrinkle this year, though: hitters are putting the ball on the ground over half the time against Velez, essentially assuring that batters will either miss or burn some worms. That’s a tough combo.

Kernels manager Brian Dinkelman has almost strictly utilized Velez as a true closer; the righty's earliest foray into a game came once in the 6th inning. Outside of that, he's been a third-act monster, hammering home saves while somehow earning five wins in the month of May alone. For this dominance, Velez takes home his second consecutive non-existent trophy as Twins Daily's Minor League Relief Pitcher of the Month. 

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